arXiv subjects

R. Albarracín

Publications and source records attributed to R. Albarracín.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Spectroscopic metallicities and first α-element abundances of RR Lyrae stars in Baade's Window

RR Lyrae stars in the bulge have been reported to be associated with the spheroidal, relatively metal-poor component. They offer a way to trace this component with precise distances. While a few studies of RR Lyrae spectra with medium/high resolution are now available, none of them target stars in the Galactic bulge. We present here a spectroscopic determination of Fe and α-element abundances for RR Lyrae stars in the Galactic bulge, with the main goal of providing a benchmark to calibrate other metallicity indicators, appropriate for this specific stellar population. We analyzed FLAMES/GIRAFEE spectra of 78 RR Lyrae stars (60 ab-type and 18 c-type). We applied a full-spectrum fitting technique to obtain the spectroscopic metallicity and overall α-element abundance. Distances are derived by means of a period-luminosity-metallicity relation, and orbits are computed by combining the radial velocities derived here with the proper motions from DR3. Gaia The resulting metallicities peak at [Fe/H] _median = -1.34 +- 0.04 and -1.44 +- 0.08 dex for ab and c-types respectively. The majority of the bulge RR Lyrae are metal-poor stars with relatively high α-element abundances around [α/Fe] ~ 0.25 +- 0.03 dex. We used our spectroscopic measurements to test different methods for deriving metallicities based on photometry, which utilize Fourier parameters in the light curves of the RR Lyrae. The data suggest a possible correlation between the metallicity difference and the [α/Fe] ratio, which needs to be investigated further. There are some ab-type RR Lyrae that show metallicities higher than -1 dex and low [α/Fe] values. We studied these stars kinematically and found a difference between three stars with similar [α/Fe] values and the main group, indicating that they may be slightly younger and correspond to the disk population.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Extinction law and stellar mass in the Nuclear Bulge from kinematically-selected red clump stars

The Nuclear Bulge of the Milky Way harbors stellar populations that provide crucial insights into galaxy formation processes and serve as a nearby analog for understanding bulge formation in external galaxies. However, detailed studies of this region are severely hampered by extreme and highly variable interstellar extinction, which obscures the intrinsic stellar properties and impedes accurate stellar mass determinations. Our goal is to measure the extinction law towards the Nuclear Bulge and to estimate its stellar density. We developed a method to determine the extinction law towards the Nuclear Bulge by kinematically selecting red clump stars belonging to this region. We created a high-spatial resolution reddening map, and computed stellar mass with completeness-corrected red clump star counts, scaled from empirical measurements. We find a total-to-selective extinction ratio of $\mathrm{A_K/{E_{H-K}} = 1.259 \pm 0.074}$, and an extinction ratio of $\mathrm{A_H/A_K = 1.794 \pm 0.046}$, which are consistent with previous works. The high-spatial resolution reddening map shows clear filamentary structures, and a gradient in the extinction over the giant molecular cloud G0.253+0.016 (i.e., the Brick). From the star counts, we measured a stellar mass of $\mathrm{12.2~\pm2.6\times10^8~M_{\odot}}$ for the Nuclear Bulge, in agreement with other mass estimates.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

A method to derive self-consistent NLTE astrophysical parameters for 4 million high-resolution 4MOST stellar spectra in half a day with invertible neural networks

Modern spectroscopic surveys obtain spectra for millions of stars. However, classical spectroscopic methods can often be computationally expensive, rendering them impractical for the analysis of large datasets. We introduce a novel simulation-based deep-learning approach for the efficient analysis of high-resolution stellar spectra to be obtained with the upcoming high-resolution 4MOST spectrograph. We used a suite of synthetic non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) spectra generated with Turbospectrum to mimic 4MOST observations and trained a conditional invertible neural network (cINN) for the purpose of predicting self-consistently stellar surface parameters and chemical abundances. The cINN is a neural network architecture that estimates full posterior distributions for the target stellar properties, providing an intrinsic uncertainty estimate. We evaluated the predictive performance of the trained cINN model on both synthetic data and observed spectra of stars. We found that our new cINN trained on NLTE synthetic spectra is capable of recovering stellar parameters with average errors ($σ$) of $33$ K for $T_\mathrm{eff}$, $0.16$ dex for $\log(g)$, and $0.12$ dex for [Fe/H], $0.1$ dex for [Ca/Fe], $0.11$ for [Mg/Fe], and $0.51$ dex for [Li/Fe], respectively, at a signal to noise ratio of 250 per Angstrom. From the analysis of the observed spectra of Gaia-ESO / 4MOST / PLATO benchmark stars, we verified that our NLTE estimates for stellar parameters and abundances are consistent with results obtained with the independent code TSFitPy. We conclude that the NLTE cINN is robust and can, theoretically, evaluate 4 million high-resolution 4MOST spectra in less than a day, using GPU acceleration.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2024

Comparing bulge RR Lyrae stars with bulge giants -- Insight from 3D kinematics

The structure and kinematics of the old component of the Galactic bulge are still a matter of debate. The bulk of the bulge as traced by red clump stars includes two main components, which are usually identified as the metal-rich and metal-poor components. They have different shapes, kinematics, mean metallicities, and alpha-element abundances. It is our current understanding that they are associated with a bar and a spheroid, respectively. On the other hand, RR Lyrae variables trace the oldest population of the bulge. While it would be natural to think that they follow the structure and kinematics of the metal-poor component, the data analysed in the literature show conflicting results. We aim to derive a rotation curve for bulge RR Lyrae stars in order to determine that the old component traced by these stars is distinct from the two main components observed in the Galactic bulge. This paper combines APOGEE-2S spectra with OGLE-IV light curves, near-IR photometry, and proper motions from the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea survey for 4197 RR Lyrae stars. Six-dimensional phase-space coordinates were used to calculate orbits within an updated Galactic potential and to isolate the stars. The stars that stay confined within the bulge represent 57% of our sample. Our results show that bulge RR Lyrae variables rotate more slowly than metal-rich red clump stars and have a lower velocity dispersion. Their kinematics is compatible with them being the low-metallicity tail of the metal-poor component. We confirm that a rather large fraction of halo RR Lyrae stars pass by the bulge within their orbits, increasing the velocity dispersion. A proper orbital analysis is therefore critical to isolate bona fide bulge variables. Finally, bulge RR Lyrae seem to trace a spheroidal component, although the current data do now allow us to reach a firm conclusion about the spatial distribution.

astro-ph.GA↗